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A Shockingly Large Majority of Health News Shared on Facebook is Fake | Fast Company

Just how factually accurate are most health articles you come across? You might be savvy enough to sort Goop from the Mayo Clinic, but when it comes to traditional news outlets, you might also be surprised to learn how much false information is really out there.

Health Feedback, a bipartisan network of scientists who collectively assess the credibility of health media coverage, worked together with the Credibility Coalition to examine the 100 most popular health articles of 2018–specifically, those with the highest number of social media engagements. They studied stories from numerous well-known websites, such as Time, NPR, the Huffington Post, Daily Mail, New Scientist, CNN, and more.

Of the top 10 shared articles, scientists found that three quarters were either misleading or included some false information. Only three were considered “highly credible.” Some lacked context of the issue, exaggerated the harms of a potential threat, or overstated research findings. Many writers either twisted data or simply couldn’t properly interpret it. Others, it seems, had an agenda.

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